T-Mobile spent $8 billion on low-band 600 MHz spectrum and will use a portion of it for nationwide 5G coverage across the U.S. "5G will be amazing, and we can't even imagine all the cool stuff it will bring, just like with our earlier network innovations," said John Legere, President and CEO of T-Mobile.

Beyond just speed, 5G aims to reduce latency, improve battery life, and increase the number of simultaneous connections which can be supported. This will help with deploying a range of new solutions.

AT&T has been testing how its network could support drones. The company is attaching smartphones to drones across the U.S. and measuring how the devices interact with the network on the ground and at various heights in the air.

It's an industry which is expected to boom as the Federal Aviation Administration estimates 1.6 million drones might be in the skies by 2021 in the U.S. alone. "Drone delivery may sound far-fetched, but it is real," said Matt Walsh, Director of Product Marketing Management of Internet of Things Solutions group at AT&T. "By 2025, network connectivity for drones has been estimated by some to become a billion-dollar business."